| PRESS
“That’s
my kind of band. I’m gonna buy that CD and I can live vicariously.”
-
Chris Roberts, The Current
“They
call themselves a “non-traditional bluegrass trio,” which
is putting it mildly—sure, there’s some of that floating in
the beer haze, but P?M is less about Hank Williams at the Opry than Hank
passed out drunk in the back of his car. Listened to sober at 9.a.m.,
the new The Empty Red Sessions is a little obnoxious, but that’s
not when or under what influence it oughtta be heard—this is music
made to get loaded to."
- The Onion |
ABOUT
P?M
(pronounced P ‘n’ M) is a family band comprised of
three cousins with a passion for pickin’ strings and pickin’
fights.
The Empty Red Sessions is the band's third full-length release, following
albums Horh Horh Hee Haw (2006) and Appellation Medication (2004). The
album title refers to the lead vocalist’s house, a fairly vacant
bachelor space where the trio recorded the album's thirteen tracks using
a 4-track tape recorder and vintage microphones. The album release is
limited to an initial 150 copies that feature guitarist Mattastic's woodcut
artwork. Each cover is hand-printed by the band.
The Empty Red Sessions is P?M's most structured recording to-date, but
retains the improvisational character fans have come to know and love.
The trio completed many songs in one take, with family and neighborhood
friends joining in for some instrumental touches, such as the mitten-played
washtub bass on "Fell Down the Stairs." Because no bluegrass
album would be complete without a nod toward its roots, P?M covers Bob
Dylan in "Quinn the Eskimo," re-imagines Leadbelly in "P?M's
Gallow Pole," and puts a distinctive spin on the traditional “Froggy
Went a’Courtin’” in the song “Pete Went a’Drinkin’.”
P?M has shared the stage with the likes of other grassroots weirdos and
wise-crackers Cadillac Kolstad and the Flats, Lady Hard-On, Roma di Luna,
Bouncer Fighter, A Paper Cup Band, and The Forest. Lady Hard-On, Cadillac
Kolstad and The Forest joined the bill for P?M’s June 2007 Southeastern
Minnesota Tour. A handful of misadventures and mishaps awaited the group
on the lonely highways of small-town America, such as altercations with
rage-filled bar owners who drove P?M out of town on the run, and being
forced to sleep in parks after fleeing the local police force. As you
will soon learn, some of these events have been woven into P?M lore by
way of The Empty Red Sessions lyrics.
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